The Minecraft Chronicles: Phantom of the Aether
by HarryPotterEncyclopedia24
Summary: The Creeper King is left powerless and the Users victorious. The Overworld is safe for now, but new evil has awaken and the Aether turned dangerous like never before. What happened to the sky dimension? And who is the Phantom of the Aether? Rated T for violence.
1. Prologue

**A/N:**

**All righty everybody, HarryPotterEncyclopedia24 is back! :D After a successful story before this, The Minecraft Chronicles: Phantom of the Aether finally reveals itself!**

**Again, I am really honoured that people like my work. So even after having two flamer attacks (yes, I kept quiet. Wanted to ignore like they didn't exist in this world, but meh), the mighty power of fans kept me happy. **** You guys are awesome, and for anonymous flamers, stop reading if you don't like it. No need to express your opinion that I'm going to wipe off the planet. I have rights to write what I want, and I won't change a thing just because to please you people. There.**

**I DO NOT, IN ANY WAY, OWN MINECRAFT. Well, maybe the characters… BUT NOT THE GODS**

**P.S. If you didn't look at my deviantART page, here's one of the key notes that you should know: I decided to drop the rotational POVs, as they are all in one place now and I don't see the point of confusing the readers.**

**P.P.S. So sorry about the short chapter. It's the prologue, and I didn't have a particular idea of opening this story in any other way, so yeah.**

**ONWARD**

**X**

A hooded figure hurried his way along the corridor, muttering under his breath. He took a left turn and entered a spacious room lit by torches that shone with the brightness equivalent to the sun. There, at the end of the room, sat another hooded man, bending over to see something that casted iridescent light all over the table.

The first figure stopped with a rather exaggerated footstep that echoed throughout the chamber. The seated figure glanced at him, waved his hand over the thing to extinguish the light, and stood up.

"Jeb," the man now standing spoke. "You got the message, then?"

"Yes," the first man replied. "But it didn't clearly explain the issue. What is this urgent matter you speak of, Notch?"

"Ah, I shall tell you personally." He beckoned Jeb forward. "Take a seat, my friend. This will take a while." Jeb moved forward and joined Notch at the table.

Sliding back to his chair, Notch talked. "You are aware of the Monster Allies' sudden active status?"

"Of course," said Jeb matter-of-factly. "What else would have disrupted the Cosmic Energy?"

"There are two possible reasons for this," said Notch. "They have found out about the last free Users, or they already knew of their existence, but rose to stop them from doing whatever that opposed the monsters."

"The second option will be most likely," said Jeb. "The Users cannot remain undiscovered with monsters swarming the land."

"I think the same," said Notch. "The Creeper King should have detected some transportation between different worlds, if he isn't dense enough to sense it."

"But I wonder what made those two portals appear," Jeb murmured. "It isn't a natural occurrence for sure. This is suspicious."

"Have you forgotten already?" asked Notch, grinning slyly. "No one in this entire universe has absolute control over the dimensions other than me."

"You did this?" Jeb asked incredulously. "You, the person that I most doubted, brought these Users together?"

"It had to happen someday," shrugged Notch. "Procrastination can ruin everything."

"It's too early," said Jeb urgently. "You should have waited until they fully matured. What good will teenage humans put up against the monster kings?"

"They did more than I expected to," answered Notch. "Recently I found out that the Overworld monsters launched an attack at the Place of Yellow Sands. A group of Users, including the three, snuck into the monster's tower and rendered the bosses powerless. I think that Terrarian kid destroyed their power source."

"It's just sheer luck," Jeb argued. "Your decision was rash. If they had died, the hopes of resurrecting the civilisation would have-"

"I judged it right," Notch snapped. "A decade later, the Users in hiding would have been wiped out. We can't interfere either; thanks to the Pact made centuries ago."

Jeb opened his mouth to argue, but resigned.

"Even though this fight is over," Notch continued. "It is possible that other monster bosses will wake soon." He snapped his fingers, producing a holographic image of all the dimensions layered together. "There are movements that I can sense," said Notch, pointing at the topmost layer where a red light was flashing dimly. "They are indeed monster bosses awakening. The boys should act fast."

"Would they know where to go?" asked Jeb. "They might head to the Nether first."

"Possibly," said Notch. "But I think to leave a little 'note' to ah… guide them to the right place."

"Very well, but I am worried about the bosses over there. They are quite… lethal."

"Yes, they are," confirmed Notch. "Especially that Phantom of the Aether…."

X

**REVIEW PLEASE :D**


	2. The Biggest Surprise Ever

**A/N:**

**NEW COVER WITH ZE PHANTOM OF THE AETHER GLOWERING AT YOU. XD If you want to see it bigger, go on my dA page! **

**HOLY MOLY TWENTY THREE REVIEWS FOR THE FIRST CHAPTER AAAAAAH XD Lovely reviews, by the way. Thanks! And I should say I'm taking a more realistic turn for this, i.e. alterations in inventories, experience orbs, health bars, etc. I wasn't particularly satisfied with those elements, so I'm cutting those off now. :P**

**Enough talk, and let the story continue! Once again apologise for that terrible cliffhanger before. I think it's horrendous.**

**P.S. I said I would be dropping rotating POVs. So our main hero would take the charge of storytelling.  
Delta824: Like a boss. :3**

**P.P.S. I, FLU, LEXILOPEZI, KATRINALINDEN AND EXB ARE WRITING A MEGA CROSSOVER OF OUR STORIES XDDDDD**

**P.P.P.S. For those who started reading this recently, I'll just say I'm a female. Since people addressed me as 'dude' frequently in the reviews. Just sayin'. XD**

**X**

Few months passed since the Monster Allies' defeat at the Place of Yellow Sands. Well, we're still here.

I was once again, outside from Xi's house, sitting by a random patch of dirt with a pool of water next to it. Even inside the island, dirt and water were pretty common throughout the village. You wonder why I'm sitting beside this random ground. Well, it reminded me of the world outside this sandy place. I had enough with yellow already, so even three blocks of dirt cure my longing for grassland. Hilarious, don't you think?

While I was sitting there, my mind brought up the topic of going to one of the dimensions: Aether or Nether. This has been stressing me out ever since the battle ended. Which one did we need to go first? Where do we go from then? How are we supposed to stop the monster kings in there? All these questions kept me in a tense mood all day long, repeating themselves in my dreams. You'll now know that I hated this business very much.

Voices started to ask these precise questions in my head already, pestering for answers and not taking an 'I need more time to think' as an excuse. Now I was really irritated. Growling, I slammed my fist hard to the soil next to me. Well, not that hard.

Immediately, the dirt trembled, but even the sandy floor beneath me, reverberating all the way up to the cave ceiling. People looked up concernedly, wondering what the cause was. I just stared at my hand. What the heck did I just do?

Gulping, I slowly moved my hand across the dirt block. The whole thing followed my hand's direction in individual particles, various sizes of soils tailing around. I quickly shook my hand, totally freaked out by the soils' unnatural behaviour. It sank back down to what it was before. I stared at it to see if it moved again. Nope, it didn't.

"What the…" I muttered to myself. What was happening to me?! I immediately leapt up from where I was sitting, and walked rather hurriedly back to Xi's house, trying to figure out how that thing just happened.

X

"Dude," called Alpha as soon as I entered. "Made up your mind?"

"No," I replied patiently. "Let's just wait until Xi finishes his experiment."

Alpha and Omega seemed to be taking turns questioning my decision of the dimension we'll be going, nagging me for the entire day. Unfortunately, that seemed to reduce my patience every minute.

"The Nether would be a logical decision," said Omega. "We don't have any glowstones nearby."

"Xi?" I called, and a muffled "Yes?" replied from the very end of the house. "Any glowstone pieces on you?"

"Sorry man," Xi called. "I-uh- liked to smash them up when I was a kid. All gone, I g-guess?"

"Any obsidian, perhaps?" I asked hopefully.

After a minute, he said, "Maybe…."

"The Nether it is," said Omega.

"We're not even sure of the obsidians!" I exclaimed.

"So? You want to wait until some divine god come down and toss us some glowing dusts? Good luck on that," he snorted.

"I hate it when you're pessimistic," I grumbled.

"You just saw my true nature."

I gave him a withering glance before trudging up to my bed and to sleep for a while in hopes of getting out of this decision-making. Maybe next day, things will all settle down.

X

I had a dream. Wow, surprise, surprise. Sounds like I never had any dream before. But this one made me wonder where the Nether I was.

I was standing in an empty space -completely white -that went on endlessly. Nothing interesting was there except for that blindingly white place surrounding me. I wasn't even sure if there was a floor and a ceiling.

Something shimmered before me, materializing into a man. He was hooded so I couldn't see his eyes, but carried a massive diamond sword. He looked exactly like the statue I saw in the Temple of Notch.

"Notch?" I asked tentatively.

He smiled. "Yes, young User," he spoke. His voice sounded very young for a guy as old as the World of Minecraft. "I am the creator of Minecraftia, god of the living and dead, but as you say, Notch."

"Uh…" was the smartest thing I could come up with. How was I supposed to treat a god?

"Delta824," the god mused. "The last free User outside the Place of Yellow Sands. Well, except for Rho115."

"You know our names?" I blurted out without thinking.

"Obviously. I am a god," said Notch. Right, that was stupid of me.

I thought for a moment to get out of this awkwardness. "Um, so… where are we?"

"The Domain of Gods," he replied. "Mortals are unable to access here, but not so if we feel generous."

"Ah… thanks?"

"Never mind. But the reason I called you here is to discuss about future plans."

That was the most interesting thing I've ever heard for this day. "I'll guess you already know of our decision to go to Aether or Nether."

"Indeed. But you don't know where to go first, right?"

"Yeah," I sighed. "Lack of resources to build the portal."

"I see. Would these do?" he asked casually as he tossed me blocks of glowing yellow pieces. I stared at them.

"Wha- just like that? Don't gods ask something in return?" I sputtered.

Notch snorted, clearly amused. "I'm not that mean. C'mon, I'm a generous guy."

"Right…" I pocketed the glowstones, hoping it won't vanish after I woke up. "But why the Aether first? Why not the Nether?"

"That is what I wish to talk about today." Notch seemed to think for a moment, and talked again. "Let's start from the very beginning. The battle at the Place was few months ago, am I correct?"

"Yeah," I muttered.

"After the monsters' defeat, I believe the Creeper King roused other monster kings in the two dimensions, but Aether was the one to react faster. For years the monsters were in deep slumber, for they had no User to worry about. Now the Aether monster bosses are fully awake, ready to strike down the little colony of Users."

"Do you know who the monster kings are?" I asked.

"Certainly." On his palm, a very pale-looking image appeared that displayed an orange humanoid creature with no legs. A column of fire seemed to support the body, but it looked like it was floating. The creature's face was in the shadows so I wasn't able to see its eyes.

"What is that thing?" I asked, awed and scared at the same time.

"The Sun Spirit," answered Notch. "Formally known as Atlas, but also go as the Resister, Moonbane, Red King, Nightstopper, and the Burning One. This image is when he was a million years younger, so I guess it's outdated."

"Oh yes, very outdated."

Notch flicked his finger across the image, changing it. I didn't know which monster was the worse: This one had no body at all, replaced by smoke with numerous bright yellow rods revolving around it. Its left face seemed to have been severely burned.

"This will be the Blaze Lord, or Flammus, Keeper of the Rods, He Who Raze the Earth, The Smoking One, or the Fear Unleashed. His face was destroyed by a Vulcan, by the way," he added, noticing where my eyes were gazing off to.

Monster kings LOVE having intimidating titles, don't they?

"And there's the Ender Dragon, but we don't need to worry about him now," he continued, extinguishing the image and facing me directly so I was able to see two black eyes looking at me. "You do know what you have to do, right?"

"Uh… kinda," I mumbled. Notch kept staring at me, so I continued. "We… um, have to go and stop whatever the Aether monsters are planning?"

"Basically, yes," said Notch. "To go into more detail, you need to kill Atlas."

It was my turn to stare at him. "Excuse me?! How am I supposed to walk into a big giant's lair and slay him?"

"For a monster king, he has a very fatal weakness, which I am sure your Aether friend knows."

"And where is this place, exactly?"

"Oh yes, I should tell you that. Atlas resides in the Golden Dungeon, which is basically a small island with golden oaks growing on it. The shape is very distinguishable, and should be near the Astrian's hideout."

"Good to know. Now where is this hideout _exactly?_"

"It would show here," he said as he handed me a sheaf of parchment. Opening up, I saw a map like the previous one I had that aided me in finding the Place of Yellow Sands.

"Is this the Tabula of Nubis?" I asked, surprised. "Why the Nether would you have this?"

"Long story: I saved it just as it was about to be destroyed. So, would this be enough help for you and your friends' quest?"

"Yeah, thanks a lot." I thought for a moment. "But all this 'saving the Users' thing is very strange for me…. Having a peaceful life until BAM, I get to fight the Monster Allies that I didn't even know of."

"I understand. But some fates cannot be avoided, even with the power of gods. After all, you and your friends were chosen for this-"

"Hang on, what do you mean by 'chosen'?" I interrupted.

Notch seemed to plot out how to say his next words without angering me. "I can't tell your entire story yet. Maybe in later times."

"Why not?"

"There are things that you aren't clear of yet. It will take a lot more time to fully understand yourself and the exact events that took place years ago."

I thought for a retort, but I couldn't. "Fine. Is it allowed to ask about my family?"

Notch answered after a consideration. "It won't hurt much, I guess. Where to start… ah, yes. You were born when the War was coming to an end. Your parents fought for the Capital, but were killed in the last day. I managed to get you out of the mess, and teleported you to a safer place once the Monster Allies stopped scouring for any surviving Users. You were too young to remember any of these, and your friends were the same as well."

I was silent for few minutes. "So that's how I ended up there? Away from the others this whole time?"

"Sadly, yes."

"Couldn't you have saved my family as well?"

"That would have been too much for me. You see, there was a reason we gods couldn't help the Users in the War. Centuries ago, mortal beings requested the gods not to interfere in their own matter, as they felt like they were being controlled and doing whatever we pleased. The agreement for this is now known as the Pact; a treaty that brought both independence and downfall to humanity. And saving you three cost me dearly for breaking it."

Naturally, I wanted to know what the consequence was, but instead said, "We all owe you then, Lord Notch."

"It was worth it," he replied. "I foresaw all your futures, and leaving the last hope of Users to the mercy of monsters would be irresponsible for deities worshipped by humans themselves.

"So, that's all our business solved. Know what you should do? All clear on where to go?"

"Yes, sir, but…" There was one other thing I wanted to know, but I couldn't remember.

"Hm?"

"Oh yes, a few hours ago, I was outside and sitting by some pieces of dirt. It responded to my actions."

"What?" asked Notch, completely bewildered.

"The whole place trembled as I slammed my fist onto the dirt. The soils even followed my hands around."

"Notch looked like he was hit on the head. "But-how-" he stuttered.

"How should I know?" Then a fact struck me. "The Neptunes! Masters of earth and water… of course! I'm related to them somehow, right?"

The god now seemed to be struck on the other side of his head. "How do you all know this?" he asked hoarsely. But he figured out the answer to his own question soon. "Rho115! I should have known…."

"So you knew I was one of them the entire time?" I asked incredulously. "Why didn't you tell me?"

"Again, the time wasn't right!" said Notch desperately. "I thought if you knew who you really were earlier, the sooner you'll know how to use your powers! I didn't even KNOW you would find out so quickly!"

"What's wrong with that?"

"Then you would have gone around using your powers for every petty matter, or facing the Creeper King himself! He'll try to kill you harder after he discovers your identity, so it's best for you to look like an ordinary Terrarian from now on. Never use geokinesis or hydrokinesis in Aether, you got that?"

"Geo-what?"

"Ability to control earth and water," said Notch impatiently. "You have to take this seriously, Delta. It's no laughing matter. Under any circumstances, you are not to reveal yourself as a member of the Neptune family. Not even to your friends."

"Is that why you lied about my parents?" I asked quietly.

"Yes."

I tried to take in all the things I've just heard from Notch. Me, a member of the late ruling family of the Overworld? Delta824, a boy living alone in a random place… a prince? As much as I wanted this to be a joke, I couldn't find another excuse for the peculiar event that happened today.

When I tried to speak, my mouth went dry. But in the end I managed to say, "So… my father… was the king?"

"You can say that," said Notch. "Praeceptor is the correct term, but yes. King is another word to describe that position."

I wanted to know more about my parents, but a feeling told me it was going to be unbearable. So I scrapped that idea, and moved on. "I heard that the Praeceptors were the most powerful beings in the universe right after the gods. If I develop my… geokinesis or hydrokinesis… won't I stand a chance against the Monster Allies?"

"I highly doubt you'll master all the skills before the monsters find you. They have their own ways of finding out things," said Notch grimly. "I advise you to hide your abilities as long as possible. It will have to be revealed some time, but now is too early. Just keep that in your mind."

"I will," I promised. "It won't be too hard. I mean, I'm used to fighting with normal weapons."

"Be aware that you might accidentally use your powers," warned Notch.

"I'll try to be more cautious about it."

"Good. And I guess that's all I need to tell you for now, Delta824," said Notch, looking straight into my eyes. "I wish you best of luck in Aether. My last advice is this: Beware the Phantom of the Aether. It will be the most dangerous foe you and your friends will ever encounter. Avoid fighting it as much as you can." And he started to disappear.

"What? Who's this Phantom? Why won't you tell me more about it? You explained all the other matters, so why not this Phantom of the Aether?" I asked desperately, but Notch was already gone. My last thought before waking up: Gods are SO helpful.

X

I almost leapt out of my bed, already wide awake. That dream I had was so real… Notch coming to speak to me….

I instinctively shoved my hand into the pocket where I put away the glowstones. I groaned to see them glowing ever so brightly. The dream WAS real. And that also meant the whole element-controlling business was not a hallucination, either.

"Had a bad dream?" asked Omega, seeing my expression.

"Heck, yeah," I gulped. "And I just found out where we should go first."

X

**A/N:**

**Some people might think this chapter was rushed with all the REALISATIONS coming out. Well, I thought it would be good to tell you readers right now than dragging along. And I believe I chose the right time to write about this, because I figured it would take a lot of chapters to develop this new surprise into something bigger. But it will be fun! I promise! :D And I won't abandon the original Minecraft things just for all the element-controlling business. IT WILL STILL BE MINECRAFT.**

**I know this is quite early, but I won't most likely update soon so Happy Christmas to all of you! :D Have a great time!**

**Now my school break started so I hope again that I will be able to write more. Probably….**

**Again, review and look out for that mega crossover of TMC, EtHU and Gone in Flu's account! XD**


	3. A Colder World

**A/N:**

**OH MY GODS I'M SO SORRY FOR THE UPDATE IT TOOK ME FOREVER BLAME MY NEW WRITER'S BLOCK UMBRIDGE AND MY SCHOOL ASSESSMENTS AND MATHS AND YEAH. ;A;**

**And of course, I bet you already read the crossover in Flu's account…. Review please! :D I released the future mob villains in there, so if you want to access some 'spoilers', you're welcome to read Broken Realities. And some monster bosses designs are released in my deviantART page! Some healthy bit of spoiler for those who want some.**

**And I need to say this again since it's a start of a new story: I. Am. Not. Accepting. OCs. Not now.**

**P.S. People count their age when a new year starts in this world, 'cause I can't be bothered to create birthdays for all these people. Much easier to remember than English or American or whatever people know as anyway.**

**Delta824: Aw s***.**

**HPE24: *pounces* NO. PROFANITY. IN. FRONT. OF. THESE. YOUNG. PEOPLE.**

**Delta824: D:**

**P.P.S. You do realise that your moa shares the name with the Nether Praeceptors?**

**Alpha198: ._.**

**P.P.P.S. KyaniteArcher is making an encyclopaedia of Minecraft fanfiction characters, and we're REALLY excited! The form is in her deviantART page btw. She already made pages for Alpha and Aquillon! SQUEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE**

**X**

"So you're saying…" said Omega, his eyes fastened on the glowstone pieces. "Notch came into your dream and gave you these and a map?"

"Yes," I answered. But more than that, I thought secretly.

"Seems real enough," shrugged Alpha. "Gods are gods; they're weird, freaky, nosy, and often invade privacies. At least in the books."

I wondered if Notch was in rage mode for this.

"Portal material acquired and a map to guide us obtained as well. Aether it is then," said Omega. He seemed rather unhappy, either because it was cold, or he wouldn't get to go back to his home.

"Hope Vulcan's all right there," muttered Alpha. "It's almost a year since I left the Aether."

Time did go fast, I thought. Now we were all fourteen, setting off to the floating dimension with that Phantom guy roaming the land.

"Hey guys!" Xi's voice yelled somewhere from his workplace, and the person himself soon followed moments later. "It worked!"

"What worked?" asked Omega, evidently confused.

"You know, the portal coordination experiment!" he exclaimed, grinning ecstatically. "I've been trying to perfect the calibration for a whole week. It's finally done!" Seeing the confused looks on our faces, Xi proceeded to explain. I found that he didn't stutter in his speech when he was genuinely excited in technical stuff. "I figured a way of programming the portals into teleporting to a specific coordinate. It works everywhere, as far as I can tell. Even within one dimension.

"Wait, you've been to other dimensions for this?" I asked.

"Um… I think so. I found myself in some strange cave with strange blocks. But yeah, the attempts all ended up around the places I intended to go, so I called it a success. And I spent another week redesigning the Redstone signal for the minor calibration issues, but turned out that the repeater had some problem with refreshing the signals. Yeah, that was kind of a waste."

"I thought Redstone stuff couldn't make things like that," I piped out. "It's impossible. That stuff is too complicated."

"Well, I kinda borrowed those technologies from the Remoterrarians," said Xi sheepishly.

"Who?"

"Um, they're extinct species of Terrarians that were said to live in the Far Lands. They were pretty high-tech, but killed each other off in the end. Probably trying to steal more gadgets from others."

Now that was interesting.

"So without all these intelligent words," summed up Alpha, "it's possible to set the portal's destination manually."

"Yep! Oh, and before I forget, I found these." Xi handed me heaps of purplish black blocks. "I- um- seemed to have piled my equipment over them. No wonder I couldn't find any obsidian."

"Thanks, but we decided to go to the Aether first," I told him.

"Doesn't matter. You can use those for future purposes."

"Hmm, I guess." Xi gave a quick smile, and made his way back to his workplace, muttering about getting a new anvil.

"Xi said this coordination stuff can work inside a single dimension. Perhaps we can use it to check your house back there?" suggested Omega. "We have obsidian."

Truthfully, I forgot all about my settlement outside the Place. But come to think of it now….

"No," I replied. "We can't."

"Oh? Why not?" asked Alpha, taken aback.

"I've seen what the Monster Allies are capable of. I'm pretty sure they've either destroyed it, or set a trap for us by now. They would predict that I would go back for it."

"Dude, you sure about this? I mean, you spent a hell lot of time building that. And you lived your entire life in there."

"I expected the worst. Besides, I'm not that attached to homes anyway, and there isn't anything valuable enough for me to go retrieve it."

"What about your diamond and iron stuff?"

"Oh, I can get them any time," I shrugged.

"Uh… how?" asked Omega suspiciously.

Oops. My bad, Notch.

"I have my own ways. Now, if you'll excuse me, I'll take a little stroll outside," I said in the best un-hasty voice I could muster, straightening up and going for the door when Rho entered.

"Where're you off to, Delta?" he asked.

"Want some fresh air. I'll return soon." And I left the house, but not before hearing Alpha mutter to Rho: "Is it just me, or is Delta getting weirder?"

X

I trudged along the sandstone floor, keeping my head low and trying to press down my nervousness. Now that I was fully exposed to earth, the fear of unintentionally geokinating filled my mind. This whole place was made out of earth. What if I accidentally caused an earthquake? What if the ceiling fell down for my uneasiness? Soon I realised I was even apprehensive of _walking._

_What if the Creeper King discovered my identity? _I questioned myself fearfully. _Would he rally the rest of the Allies and destroy this place? And what would happen to me? Killed like my parents?_ But I stopped myself.

_I'm thinking ahead. If I just stay cool like Notch advised, nothing would go wrong. Don't fret about these things, _I told myself sternly. _I need to get used to controlling my abilities first._ Finishing that thought, I turned to face a sandstone block that jutted out from the ground unevenly. It stayed where it was.

I relaxed. _See? It won't move._

Almost laughing in relief, I leaned on the wall with some extra unintended force. The wall shuddered and some part of it lurched out from the smooth surface.

_HOLY- _I yelled in my head, elbowing the pieces back as hard as I can. They wouldn't budge for some reason, but no one was around to see a fourteen year-old teenager shoving himself up the yellow wall. Thank goodness.

"Why- won't- you- move- godsdamnit," I swore silently, struggling to return the wall to its normal state. The pieces suddenly slid back to their position and I almost lost my balance thanks to that. Instead, my head had a rather unpleasant contact with the barrier.

"Stupid wall," I grumbled, massaging my head and glaring at the sandstone surface. I was tempted to punch the wall in retaliation, but resigned. I didn't want to risk the possibility of bringing this whole place down.

"Delta?" someone asked from the behind. Her voice made me jump up immediately and face her.

"Oh! Um… hi, Iota," I mumbled, trying to look as innocent as possible. "What're you doing here?"

"I was just passing by," she answered. "What are _you_ doing here?"

"Ah… uh… well… I was just… erm… walking," I replied sheepishly. That was the truth anyway.

"You were walking," repeated Iota. She didn't look that convinced. "And you ended up on the floor?"

"Oh, I, uhm, I was thinking so I didn't exactly see where I was going." I hoped she bought this.

She scrutinized me intensely, but in the end said, "All right then." I sighed in relief inside my head. "Delta? Are you fine? You look nervous."

"I'm perfectly fine," I said in a not-so-persuasive tone. "I just have… loads in my mind these days."

I felt the sandstone block right under my foot nudge my shoe. I shoved it down in response.

Iota stared. "Really?"

"Oh yes. Really," I confirmed, adding a smile to make me look innocent. I got the feeling it didn't quite work out.

"If you say so," she shrugged. "Then I'll see you around?"

"Definitely." But impulsively, I added, "Oh, hey, Iota?"

She turned back. "Hm?"

My mouth went dry. Oh no no no no. Not NOW. It was too embarrassing. But it was just saying how beautiful she looked, I thought. What would it- OH NO that would immediately give away. Instead, I gulped and said, "Um… never mind. I… erhm… forgot what to say."

"Okay." She was looking at me weirdly now. "So… um… see you later?"

"Yeah," I responded meekly. Iota gave me a concerned glance, and walked away.

As soon as she was out of earshot, I started to curse silently. To myself, of course.

"Damn it, you idiot," I hissed, smacking my forehead. "What's so great about spitting it out? It would've been over in a matter of seconds. Gods, I'm such a moron." I kicked the wall in anger and made a hole ten blocks deep. "Oh, shoot," I muttered, hastily ordering the hole to repair itself.

X

It was the day we were off to Aether, and Xi had been building the portal that would take us to Alpha's place. Everybody was carrying on their normal routine, but in a remote corner of the island, a group of people were huddled around Xi who was fiddling with the Redstone wires to finish the last part of the glowstone portal. The only people present were me, Alpha, Omega, Rho, Xi, Omicron, Sigma, Iota, and Upsilon.

While the others were paying attention to Xi, Rho secretly pulled me aside. "Delta," he started as soon as we were out earshot. "I've been thinking about the trip to the Aether."

"Huh? What about it?" I asked, puzzled.

"I want to stay here."

"What?!" I sputtered.

"It's just that… I was apart from other Terrarians for a long time. I didn't even know they survived. Seeing them all here… well, it's like seeing my family again. It's selfish for me to leave you guys in the Aether, but I don't want to depart so soon."

"It's not like we're leaving forever," I argued.

"That's true. But I wish I can spend more time in this place… I might even be an asset for defending here just in case the monsters attack again. And truthfully, I was never a fan of heights," confessed Rho.

This really stumped me. I wasn't angry at him for sure; I understood the fact that he was apart from human civilisation for fourteen years and missed his parents terribly.

"Does Alpha and Omega know about this?" I asked quietly.

"Yeah. I told them while you were outside. Reacted pretty much the same as you did, but told me to do whatever I wished."

"But are you really sure about this? We can use some help in the Aether."

"I bet you'll do fine," said Rho. "You're the one that defeated the Creeper King anyway."

"With some cheats," I muttered.

He shrugged. "Nevertheless, I'm not so keen on leaving the Overworld. Also, I have a feeling that you guys are the ones to go, not me. It's not a coincidence that all three of you met in the same place at the exact moment."

"True…" I trailed off, thinking about what Notch said last night.

Rho waited.

"All right," I finally said reluctantly. Rho immediately brightened up. "I wish you to be comfortable, but if we get into any trouble, it's because you weren't with us," I added the last words cheekily.

"I'll take full responsibility," he replied playfully as well.

At that moment, Xi announced, "Okay, it's all set."

We re-joined the group to see the glowing threshold with bright red circuitries attached to it, the churning blue substance filling up the gap. Xi got up, taking off his protection goggles as he turned to face me. "That's done," he informed me. "If I got it right, this should take you guys somewhere around Alpha's place. He'd better be correct with the coordination."

"Thanks for everything, man."

"No problem," he grinned. I turned towards the glowing portal, where Alpha and Omega were waiting for me with the wolves close to them.

"Finally going then?" asked Alpha.

"Yeah, sure."

"Good luck, everybody," said Upsilon solemnly, shaking my hand. "I hope the problems in the Aether get solved quickly."

"Thank you, sir," I replied politely. Fighting the Aether monster bosses: a major problem indeed.

"Bye guys," said Omicron, Sigma nodding beside him. Rho smiled as well, his hand raised in farewell. I gave a fleeting smile until I realised Iota was approaching me.

"Hi, Delta," she started off. "I really hope you'll return to the Overworld soon. Good luck on killing the Sun Spirit."

"Thanks…" I mumbled.

Iota extended her arm and shook my hand. "And thanks for… everything." My face suddenly heated up so fast.

"Oh, uhm, yeah, no problem…." Alpha sniggered next to me.

"Come on, it's taking forever," he said impatiently, grabbing my arm and marching into the portal. "We'll see you all soon!" he called out cheerfully with Omega, Pluto and Thanatos at his heels.

"Dude, what the-" I protested, but the blue substance got us before I could finish the sentence.

X

It was a strange sensation, going through the gateway and into a different world. Quite chilly, but also distorting my vision and filling my eyes with bright blue light. This uncomfortable sensation lasted for only five seconds or so, and I soon found myself stepping out from the threshold and being greeted by a blast of cold air.

I slowly looked around. Greyish islands were floating in the sky, but there were no clouds above us; only the sun shining noticeably bright. For a guy who lived his whole life on solid ground, this was quite a shock.

Before I could register where we were, Alpha muttered, "What… the heck?"

I wasn't sure on what was wrong, but I had a feeling that Alpha's words were directed to the thick layer of snow beneath our feet. Now come to think of it, even the farthest islands had some white sheet over the grey soil, and some areas were even _snowing_.

"Oh gods, no," groaned Omega, slapping his forehead. "Not snow again…" Thanatos sneezed.

"But… the Aether doesn't snow," Alpha said, absolutely stunned. "H-how?"

"New weather phenomenon?" I suggested.

"Can't be," he muttered. "The Aether is too high up to be affected by weathers… And it's not this cold."

"Oh, yes, must have been a nice hot world back then," Omega said sarcastically, shivering.

Alpha shot him an annoyed glance. "I have no idea how this happened. Seriously. For my entire life in this dimension, I never saw a single flake of snow coming down from the sky. The clouds here are incapable of creating that stuff in the first place anyway."

"This is strange…" I agreed. "But… could it be because of the Monster Allies?"

"What makes you say that?" asked Alpha, frowning.

"When the Monster Allies attacked in the Overworld, the sky went dark, remember? It isn't natural for that area to have night-time as well. Maybe they're messing around with places again because of us, who knows?"

"Possible…"

"Look, can we discuss this matter _indoors?_" asked Omega impatiently. "Am I the only person who's cold or what?"

"Yes, yes, my house should be around here somewhere," Alpha mumbled, still distracted by the snow. We strolled over the snow-covered island with Alpha on the lead, looking at the scenery curiously and keeping our eyes on the wolves. Strange trees and animals were everywhere, but what intrigued me the most were the islands suspended in mid-air with nothing to support from underneath. It was as if gravity didn't exist in this place, but I wasn't so sure after seeing a trickle of water flowing all the way down through the white misty clouds beneath us.

The sky was starting to get dark when Alpha called, "Ah, I found it," and quickened his pace. The rest of us almost sprinted after him but started to slow down when a rectangular structure came into our view. It seemed to be made out of dark grey stones but with blue lights glowing faintly. Probably a native material in the Aether.

Alpha, who had rushed ahead of us towards his house, was suddenly halted when a dark mass shot out from a small yellowish building. It pounced on him and let out some kind of a moan that almost deafened me. I immediately suspected to be a hostile mob until the thing started to nudge Alpha affectionately, whimpering like a dog.

"Hey, Vulcan," Alpha greeted the creature. "Yeah, nice to see you again, man- alright, _please_ allow me to get up-"

As the mob straightened up, I had a better view of it: the creature was completely black except for its reddish legs, eyes and the beak; the body covered with sleek feathers. It was bigger than Alpha, and I had to admit it looked very intimidating with little teeth poking out from its beak. The animal's anatomy somewhat reminded me of a chicken.

"Well, guys," said Alpha, turning around to face us. "This is my moa, Vulcan." The bird let out yet another mournful wail.

"A moa?" I asked.

"Yep, they're a great transportation in the Aether. Very loyal pets as well." His moa nudged him as if embarrassed, almost knocking him off his balance.

"Your pet is quite… huge," I commented. I wasn't used to seeing passive animals bigger than me.

"He was tiny a long time ago. Moas grow fast once you shove food down their throat."

"I see…"

The wolves seemed to be in a mix of inquisitive, intimidation, and wariness as they approached the bird slowly. Vulcan, curious as much as they were, lowered his head and studied the new creatures. At once, the wolves had their hackles raised, growling threateningly and preparing to pounce. The moa snorted and moaned sonorously, not alarmed at all by Pluto and Thanatos' sudden hostility. But the calm animal's cry was enough to make the two of them retreat and whimper in fear.

"Hilarious," Alpha sniggered as he watched Pluto and Thanatos returning to their masters, and patted Vulcan on the shoulder. With a happy cry, Vulcan flapped his enormous wings excitedly, blowing wind on Alpha's face.

"He got too hyper during my absence," he muttered, brushing his hair out of the way. "That's why I should never leave a moa alone for a year."

I was about to reply back, but I quickly spun on my spot to stare at a hill few blocks away from us. I swore I felt something… like a presence of someone.

"Something wrong, Delta?" asked Omega uncertainly.

"Er… it's fine. Nothing," I replied back vaguely, still gazing at the place.

"You sure?" Alpha queried.

"Yeah," I lied. "Um… you guys go in first. I just want to… well, join you all later."

Alpha and Omega glanced at me doubtfully, but went in with the animals anyway and leaving me alone in the snow-covered island. Something made me nervous greatly, whatever that was behind me a few seconds ago. I knew it was a living thing because… I couldn't explain it, but I was certain.

Slowly turning on my spot, I carefully searched the surroundings for any organism, but all I saw were the Aether mobs that roamed the chunks of land. But I was sure, very certain that I was being watched secretly…

My eyes suddenly focused on a tall, dark figure on the distance, two bright eyes staring at me. My insides turned cold and chill ran down my spine as I looked back at it with wide eyes. But after a blink of an eye, it was gone.

I found it hard to breathe as soon as I registered what I just saw there. So there _was_ somebody spying us out there, whoever it was. Maybe it could have been my imagination, but those eyes were so real… real enough to fill my mind with dread and fear. The temperature seemed to have dropped ten degrees below, and I was soon shaking uncontrollably. Probably that was the cause of a random Aether dirt block jerking upwards right to my foot.

I almost lost balance but regained my footing to force the thing down to where it came from. Again, geokinesis wasn't in my favour: it completely ignored my will.

Alpha almost had the right timing to see me hammering down the earth if he wasn't distracted by Vulcan on the way out. I innocently placed a foot on the dirt block as he turned around and said, "Delta, you'd better come in soon. It's getting really cold now…"

"Ah, sure, alright," I answered back.

"Um… what are you doing?" asked Alpha, eyebrow raised.

"Nothing…" I replied. "Just… looking around, getting used to the Aether…" Out of the corner of my mouth, I was secretly hissing, "Damn it, dirt, _move,_" while continuously heeling the block as unnoticeably as possible.

"You're acting suspicious these days," commented Alpha. "You're… jumpy?"

"Oh, I am?" I asked, laughing nervously as the block finally plopped back in. "Ahaha, oh, okay, cool."

"Just get in," said Alpha, glancing at me uncertainly. "Unless you want to freeze outside."

"Right." I followed Alpha inside, but I couldn't stop thinking about the mysterious figure I witnessed. What was it?

X

**A/N:**

**GAH ALMOST ELEVEN PAGES NO WONDER IT TOOK ME SO LONG**

**Too high-tech inventions for an old world, blah blah blah. My world is like that, but not so much to affect the legit-ness. Bah, blame the Remoterrarians. They got ahead of time. So Rho's off for this story, thank you very much. Alpha, Delta and Omega are the maineys in this story anyway, so kindly step aside, Rho. Gah, that part held me up for so long… ;_; TOO MUCH AWKWARDNESS**

**And… SHNOWWWW D: Why do you think I had that poll months ago? I didn't like the Christmas update so I thought of using here in a… negative sort of way. IF YOU LIKED THE UPDATE, I'M SO SORRY DDDDD:**

**And I would be putting any little detail on my TMC progress on my profile, for those who are so 'lazy' not to go to my deviantART page. :P But seriously, want to see any extra work related to TMC, go to deviantART. I put up the link on my profile.**

**REVIEWS REVIEWS REVIEWS :DDDDDDD**


	4. First Encounter

**A/N:**

**HOLY REDSTONE GHAST BABIES TMC: PotA WENT OVER 2000 VIEWS. I dunno, 2000 seems to be a significant number for me. .3. And... oh yes, 61 faves and 57 subs on me! :DD Thank you so much, everybody! I'm really heartened that people take their time clicking the fave/sub author button in the review box. Even if it only takes a few seconds. Plus, I give a huge thanks and congratulations to Aviskye for being the 200th reviewer of TMC: TB WOOHOO YOU ROCK, BUDDY. :P**

**Also, EclipseWolf64, a good friend of mine who joined recently, has written an oneshot very kindly and she wants to spread the word about it. The topic that this oneshot is concerned about is very serious and I must agree, seeing as the topic involves me and some of my fellow respected writers. Please take your time reading this and share your opinion on this issue. I express my gratitude to her for bringing up this. This has to be solved.**

**NOTE: Ambrosium shards were once edible. I wish the creators would bring that feature again… ;_;**

**Also, I decided I should reply to my wonderful reviewers so they know what I think of their comments individually.**

**Exb756: Man, thanks a lot. :D Yesh, I'll take your word for it, and I hope this chapter helps you to understand the mythical realm of the Aether! :P**

**EclipseWolf64: Haha, inhale those sugars. HEALTHY. Talented? *blush* Aw, thanks… And if somebody doesn't have a Greek name, they would be the natural spawns who are randomly spawned in the world of Minecraft with their designated names. Weird people, but they're quite interesting as well. I'll write more about them in the future.**

**Aviskye: You got that right XD Terrible writing. I can't agree more on that. I'm really glad you find this better than the first one. I was afraid if you didn't. D: Well, thanks once again for proofreading!**

**BlackPanther101: YAAAH AWKWARDNESS YOLO. Geokinesis. :P I do not own that word, sadly. D:**

**Eien M: Oh no, I just shoved down a cat down her throat. She ran away with stifled screams. Great! :D You liked it! Yeah, he should open up his mind. Stupid adolescent boy, talk to your friends. -_-**

**Steve the legend: Thanks man! :D **

**Patrick: Haha, everybody thinks the Remoterrarians are based on Tekkit. Actually, I made them up because I wanted to give the Far Lands more attention. And thought, "Hey, what if I slapped some modern techno into these people? How would that come out?" So this is the result. :P Just random thoughts.**

**M16AssultRifle: YEAH MOAR ROMANCE :D GOOD STUFF. And thanks!**

**Ashes of Chaos: I'm honoured! J I guess my answer to Patrick would answer your question as well :P Herobrine? Ah, close! We'll see soon. Pickaxe… that sounds nice!**

**Woohooman14: I saw your review on BR. It really made my day. :D Also, glad you like this story!**

**Guest: Haha, thanks a lot! **** Here's the chapter!**

**X**

"So," Alpha started, holding out a triangular piece of bright yellow stone. "This is an Ambrosium shard."

"And…?" I asked.

"You can either make a torch with this, use it to enchant the dirt for agricultural uses, or use as a fuel for the altar. I still don't get why I can't eat them for all the sudden," he grumbled. He said that the shards were edible before he tried eating one an hour ago, which didn't end up so successful.

"So it's like coal in the Overworld?"

"That's a good comparison. You can find these almost anywhere in the Aether, and as a demonstration of crafting," he extracted a dull green stick and mashed them up, "you get an Ambrosium torch." With that, he held out a stick blazing with yellow fire.

"Interesting…"

Alpha carelessly placed the torch on the stone wall and continued lecturing about the Aether materials. "As you saw earlier, the other ingredient used in the torch is called a Skyroot stick. You can obtain them from Skyroot trees out there, and the crafting recipe is the same as the Overworld sticks. Easy enough?"

"Yeah," Omega said slowly. I almost sensed his lack of interest for the topic.

"Skyroot tools are made the same way as the wooden tools in the Overworld, except there's one special feature. For example, when you dig Aether dirt with a Skyroot shovel, it gives two pieces of dirt instead of one, so it basically doubles the amount of items you get. It's very efficient if you want to gather a lot of resources over a short period of time. But this—" he picked up a purple pickaxe by his side, "—is also a great tool to use for mining. Personally, I favour this over the Skyroot pickaxe."

"Is that the purple pickaxe that you carried around?" I asked.

"Zanite pickaxe is what it's called," Alpha reminded us again. "It's made from Zanite gems, and the best thing about this is that the power on mining materials goes up as it gets used more and more."

"That makes no sense at all."

"In the Aether, it does," shrugged Alpha. "Don't ask me, I didn't make the pickaxes function like that. But other pickaxes have their own features as well." He stood up and walked over to a nearby chest, and bent down as he searched the contents for something. We just sat around, glancing at Alpha, the Zanite pickaxe and Vulcan the moa in turns.

"This model is a rare one," said Alpha as he returned with a pink pickaxe. "It's made out of Gravitite."

"There are pink gems?" I asked, staring at the pink material that served as the head of the tool.

"Mhm, but Gravitites are rather hard to harvest, because they have a tendency to float upwards when there are no blocks on the top of the ore. Also, it has to be processed in the altar before it can be crafted, so it's kinda like iron to get the ingot. But for Gravitite, you get a block of enchanted Gravitite. You can put it in the workbench and make shovels, pickaxes, swords, armour, and so on."

"Mhm," I replied half-heartedly. He spent almost all of the morning teaching basic stuff in the Aether. Now it was starting to get a bit tedious.

"And I think the next one we should talk about would be—"

"Can we have some practical stuff?" interrupted Omega. Notch bless him. "I dunno, kill stuff? Learn about new mobs?"

"There aren't many monsters in the Aether," said Alpha. "The land is filled with boring animals that do absolutely nothing. They have no life at all."

"It would be interesting for us newcomers to see them though," I said hopefully.

"Yeah? Go figure." He marched outside the house and we followed his suit, stopping as Alpha halted and pointed at a gigantic blue creature stuck in the Aether terrain.

"There you go," he said in a bored tone. "Aerwhale. It can fly, but it's also one of the most stupid mob species to ever exist in this world. Most of them don't even know how to get themselves out of the island after crash-landing."

"Ah…okay?" I stared as the peculiar creature struggled with its head lodged firmly in the floating mass.

"So you have to push them out if you don't want to see a whale squirming in your island, but then it crashes in another land a few moments later. It's best for your health to ignore them. I don't think they die anyway."

"I thought all mobs die," said Omega, bewildered.

"Oh, no, these chaps are probably the only kind that can't be killed. I tried setting one on fire with a Phoenix Bow. In exchange, I got a whale burning eternally and flying around my area. I don't know where it went after that."

The creature stuck in the terrain wailed, sounding a lot like a moa but high-pitched.

"But not all mobs would be like that … Aerwhale around here," I tried to reason. "Um, your moa is an interesting creature."

"Moas are nice," Alpha admitted, glancing at Vulcan who trotted out from the house and poked its beak into the grass. "But they're rather hard to get. Blue moas are the most common species, followed by white ones and the black ones. I had to chase Vulcan's mom around until it laid an egg. And that was the only black moa I've seen around here."

"Does he eat anything?" I asked out of curiosity. "I never saw him hunt for food, or whatever moas do to feed themselves."

"Moas eat what they can find," said Alpha dismissively. "I'm not sure what their normal diet is, but mine likes to eat Aechor petals, flowers, grass, and—"

A fluffy white creature that Alpha called an aerbunny hopped around close to the grass patch, but in a blink of an eye, Vulcan snatched it and swallowed the whole animal in one gulp.

"…yeah. He likes to eat small animals."

"Your pet is one of the craziest creatures I've ever seen."

"Thanks, man."

Vulcan sniffed, licking his beak while his eyes darted around to find more prey. The three of us stood there and watched the massive bird scampering off; chasing what seemed to be a very fat blue sheep.

"You get the general idea," Alpha sighed. "Life in the Aether is chaotic. You don't know what to expect from both mobs and floating terrains. And now with all the snows and stuff…" He kicked the snow on the ground resentfully.

The awkward silence was unnerving. I shifted uncomfortably and tried to bring up a topic to end this silence, but Alpha found it first. And it wasn't what I hoped to be.

"Want to try mining?" he asked, raising his head. "We have to get packed up for the upcoming journey anyway. Might as well as upgrade some gear and be ready."

"Oh, wait, mining?" I stuttered, suddenly panicking. Only one word came to me: earth. "Er, are there any other things that I can do?"

"Not really… I have plenty of food in the chests inside. All we need are some Zanites and Gravitites."

Omega looked at me curiously. "I thought you liked mining. Why are you trying to avoid it all the sudden?"

"Um… the Aether is quite different to the Overworld… the floating lands and… yeah," I mumbled. "I thought… maybe I can stand guard while you and Omega go down? Just in case the Aether monsters attack?"

Alpha considered my suggestion. "That sounds reasonable…" he said slowly. I sighed in relief. "But are you sure? You're missing out a good experience."

"Oh yeah, I'm, uh, pretty sure," I replied nervously. "Just… tell me what mobs I should look out for."

"I don't think any hostile mobs are in vicinity right now, but if you see yellow or blue cubes—looks like slimes—that hop around, you can kill them. Zephyrs may come from the sky, but they only shoot snowballs so as long as you're not at the edge of this island, you don't have to worry about them. Whirlwinds don't spawn here for some reason, so no need to learn about them for now." Alpha started trudging through the snow with Omega, but called out, "If there are things that look like Vulcan but has ridiculously bright colours, get away from them unless you want to get poisoned by darts." On that cheery note, the two of them went off.

X

All I had in my hand was a holystone sword to ward off any monsters that would attack. The sword was quite different from what I used to have in the Overworld; the shape, the grip, the weight, and generally everything about the sword was alien for me. Alpha insisted on using the Aether tools while our stay in this dimension, as the Overworld ones don't work as they used to back in their own world. It was a shame to stow away a perfectly fine diamond sword for this journey.

I glanced at the direction where Alpha and Omega went. They weren't that far away, and I could hear them calling out each other's names from time to time as they dug deeper into the island.

Ten minutes passed and nothing came for us, so I resolved to stare at the sky with the sun shining down with no clouds to intercept the light. How curious, though, even with the sun basking the lands with its warmth, the snow never melted. The air around me was cool and breezy as it would in the tundra biomes, but it wasn't cold enough to keep the snow in their state. It didn't make any sense.

A snowball, no bigger than my fist, struck the ground and crumbled. I whipped around to see a rectangular mob snaking across the sky, its eyes focused on me. From Alpha's description, I figured that it was a Zephyr. Since there was no way to bring the monster down to the island for close combat, I produced a bow that I borrowed from Alpha, nocked the arrow and fired at the underside of the Zephyr. Fire sprang immediately from where the arrow struck, and the Zephyr screeched horribly as it hurtled down from the sky while slowly disintegrating. I didn't realise at first, but the Zephyr's cry drowned out another agonised scream of an animal.

Now that the creature was slain, I inserted the bow back to my pocket as it shrunk, to get out my sword again. I would have if I didn't see a patch of red at the distance. Forgetting all about my duty of watching out for hostile mobs, I approached the spot cautiously, constantly looking around to make sure nothing was hiding to ambush me.

I was ten blocks away from my destination when realisation struck me: it was blood. A considerably large amount of it was spilled across the pure white snow, and a trail of liquid led away to a small hill, the rest of the scarlet path obscured by it. Judging by the parted snow and the messy blood spill, the animal that got killed was massive, and was dragged away into some unknown place.

Curiosity got the better of me: I followed the blood trail.

_I was only going to see where this led to, _I thought. _Shouldn't take too long._

How wrong I was.

The gore thickened as the track progressed, but I didn't understand how someone—or something—managed to haul the dead carcass away swiftly without making any noise. It was impossible for something big and heavy to be moved away in that manner, especially when blood was slopped all over the floor. This was getting increasingly suspicious.

Without realising, I was almost sprinting now, scared but determined to find out what this was all about. I had a feeling that it was a trap, but I figured if I didn't go too far, I won't get into any trouble.

I soon reached that hill and turned at the corner, only to be met with more blood. It was still making its way towards a stone mountain that wasn't big compared to the ones in the Overworld, but was still impressive. A massive cavern carved into the mountain slope was where the blood was disappearing into.

_Now it's the right time to get my sword out, _I thought, reaching for the holystone sword. Alpha and Omega could wait. I had to find out what created this mess; It could possibly link to the Monster Allies. With that thought, I took a deep breath and headed for the cave.

X

The amber light from the Ambrosium torch warded off the darkness inside the cave, allowing me to see the interior properly. There was a pool of blood at the middle of the cave as if the animal was finally laid down, but the animal itself was nowhere to be seen. I couldn't see any drops of the crimson liquid on the floor to prove the creature was carried away. It simply disappeared.

Naturally, the next thing for me to do was to look around my surroundings and see if anything else was in this cave. I caught a glimpse of red markings on the wall, so I whipped around and stared at what seemed to be a message. Written in blood.

I HAVE WAITED ENOUGH. CONFRONT ME IF YOU DARE, HUMAN. THE PHANTOM OF THE AETHER AWAITS YOU.

I was rooted to the spot, my eyes fixed at the scarlet letters. I remembered what Notch said now: Beware the Phantom of the Aether. It will be the most dangerous foe you and your friend will ever encounter. Avoid fighting it as much as you can.

I would have run straight out of the cave if it wasn't for a chill running down my spine that made me jump and look at what I would regret for the rest of my life.

The thing snuck up on me without a sound. It was two blocks taller than me, the head covered with a silvery helmet with three thin spikes; two on either side of the helmet with four pointed edges, the middle one with three. Its body was draped completely with a grey-blue cloak and two strips of cloth that ran down from its bronze shoulder plates. The most terrifying feature of that figure was its eyes boring down on me; those white eyes with small black pupils at the centre carved fear into my mind, incapacitating me just with its terrifying gaze. With a start, I realised this was the figure that watched me from a distance when I stepped out of the portal and into the snowy world.

But the thing stood there, observing me with its unblinking eyes, not moving an inch. Forcing my mouth open, I managed to croak, "Y-you are th-the Phantom?" Even saying the word 'Phantom' chilled my blood.

The creature blinked once.

My brain learned how to breathe properly. I commanded my stiff legs to move and back away, which seemed to have provoked it because the next thing I knew, the Phantom had a massive golden sword in its metallic hands and jabbed at me. I was quick enough to stop the blow with my sword, but the sheer force of it threw me to the ground. Snapping my head back up again, I rolled out of the spot just in time before the blade could impale my stomach. I regained my footings and raised my sword and intercepted another slash from the Phantom, who withdrew quickly and continued its relentless attack with its weapon while I was barely defending myself with a crudely made sword.

I was being driven out of the cave and into the cold snowing island, but the Phantom went on mercilessly. Every time its blade met mine, I felt as if my arm was going to be dislocated. The Phantom was too quick for me and didn't give me a chance to use my powers. I fended off another blow and swiped my sword to decapitate my adversary, and the Phantom ducked quicker than I could imagine and left a gash on my ankle. I backed away as fast as my injured leg would allow me to and earned a cut on the right side of my face rather than having my entire head chopped off.

"Who are you exactly?" I yelled as I reeled back, wiping blood off my face. The Phantom didn't reply but swung its sword again to lock our blades together. Its eyes narrowed as if amused by my struggle against the heavy metal pressed upon my stone weapon. Even though I paid full attention to the Phantom's sword, I couldn't help but noticing cracks appearing on my sword from where the edges met. I tried pushing the sword away forcefully, but the golden sword didn't even budge, only deepening the fracture and making my hands tremble. Then the Phantom did the most unexpected thing: it slipped the blade under the holystone sword's cross-guard, flung the sword forcibly out of my hands with its monstrous strength and raked the tip across my left arm, all the way down to my wrist.

I cried out in pain, crumpling on the floor as my knees gave away. With my good arm, I tried to get back up but stopped as I saw the Phantom's sword almost in contact with my throat. It loomed over me and looked down as if contemplating whether to kill me or not. My blood was starting to dye the snow on the ground, and yet we still glared at each other resentfully. I wondered what the Phantom was doing, not finishing off a helpless, injured opponent when it had the upper hand.

My whole body was starting to ache and numb from wounds and the coldness, and that was also the point when the Phantom withdrew its sword, turned its back on me and walked away.

That left me stunned. But also angry. "What, you're going to leave me alive?" I shouted. "Get back here! I'm not done with you—"

The Phantom looked around and gazed at me, as if saying, "I won. You lost. But you're not worthy to be killed."

The Phantom of the Aether disappearing into the blizzard was the last thing I saw before everything went dark.

X

**A/N:**

**Finger painting is messy. Especially when it's done with blood.**


	5. Not a chapter, sorry

**This is NOT an update, so I apologise thoroughly for a notice like this.**

**A lot of people have been asking me if I gave up on TMC, and I tried my best to answer individually as I didn't want to get all your hopes up with emails alerting a new chapter-I'm really sorry for posting this up in the first place. But I said in previous author's notes that I will put up statistics for how far I've written in my FF profile and my deviantART journals, which is what I'm telling people to check out for those who asked me. I'm just giving another heads up for anybody that's planning to question me about it (I'm getting a tad bit frustrated with repeating answers over and over again… sorry. D: ). If I was going to give up TMC (which I don't plan to in my life), I would have posted a notification chapter, written a journal in deviantART and make notes in my profile. Well, I didn't do any, so this story is still rollin'. :)**

**Again, I'm truly sorry for keeping you waiting; I had and still have a lot of things going on at the moment (I had a one week Thailand trip, exams, studies, drawings to do for people, writer's block, etc.), and I believe I'll get more time to work on TMC by next week, which is when my school ends for a summer break. Thank you so much for your patience and your continuous support, and I'll be working feverishly on the next chapter when I get the chance. **

**P.S. I'd prefer if you don't review this chapter-it will get deleted after I update the story.**

**P.S.S. Please, I asked NOT. TO. PESTER. OR. REVIEW. IS THAT TOO MUCH TO ASK. I'M NOT A MACHINE THAT CAN PRODUCE CHAPTERS WHENEVER YOU PLEASE TO-I SPECIFIED I HAVE STUDIES AND PROJECTS TO TAKE CARE OF, WHICH IS FAR MORE IMPORTANT THAN WRITING UP STORIES. I'M A HUMAN AS WELL. I'm really sorry for the caps rage, but... I'm absolutely ANGRY after that one anonymous review (deleted straight away). I know you didn't mean any harm, and I apologised already for the late delay. I really want to write and see your wonderful feedbacks as well as delighting you with more chapters, however, life doesn't always go like that. The reason why it's taking forever is because I'm trying to figure out alternative ways to make the chapter less cliche, but I get writer's block every single time I do that. I'm also working with my fellow authors over Skype on a massive project, and I want to clear stuff out when they're still awake (timezones. Why.). Again, I'm terribly sorry to make you wait SO MUCH and this raging overall.**


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